Appeal No. 96-1290
Application 08/042,719
The claims all call for a manually aimed gun or guns and
acquiring a target, wherein the means for acquiring the target is
remote from the gun or guns. Frohock is clearly not directed to
manually aimed guns and Boeck does not mention guns at all.
Therefore, it would appear that any combination with Boeck, in
order to arrive at the claimed invention, could only have been
made through impermissible hindsight.
The most relevant reference appears to be that of Jaquard
which does appear to disclose a manually fired gun. The problem
with Jaquard, however, is that it does not disclose the claimed
“means for acquiring a target, said acquiring means disposed at a
location remote from said gun.”3
The examiner points to column 1, lines 57-59 of Jaquard,
which states:
Thus a function is provided equivalent to that of a
stabilized remote aiming control station operating as a
master station for a weapon system.
The examiner points to this section ostensibly to show that
Jaquard at least suggests that the acquiring means may be remote
from the gun. Appellant argues [principal brief, page 24] that
this section of Jaquard actually teaches away from the claimed
invention because Jaquard’s invention is taught for a remote
aiming control station which is no longer needed with Jaquard’s
gun because of Jaquard’s use of a camera.
3 This language is taken from independent claim 1 but the other
independent claims include comparable language.
3
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